VANCOUVER — B.C. medical officials have linked an ecstasy death in the Lower Mainland to tainted drugs.

The provincial health officer said Thursday the death was caused by paramethoxymethamphetamine-tainted ecstasy.

Five people in Alberta and three in B.C. have died in recent weeks after taking the drug.

On Wednesday, Alberta’s chief medical examiner confirmed “paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) and methamphetamine — not previously associated with street drugs sold in Calgary as ‘ecstasy’ — was present in toxicology results for each of five recent Calgary-area street-drug deaths,” according to a news release issued by Alberta Health Services.

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“It was reported that each of the recent overdose victims thought they were ingesting ecstasy (MDMA), not PMMA or methamphetamine,” the news release stated.

MDMA was also found in the victims’ systems.

The new compound is believed to be five times more toxic than traditional ecstasy, health officials said.

What we’re finding in this case is that people were getting something very different than what they thought they were,” said Dr. Mark Yarema, medical director for the Poison and Drug Information Service and a Calgary emergency room physician.

Three people in B.C.’s Lower Mainland have died from reactions to ecstasy in recent weeks: a 17-year-old girl from Abbotsford, B.C., a 22-year-old Vancouver woman who took the drug at a house party and another 22-year-old Vancouver woman who was hospitalized after taking ecstasy on New Year’s Eve and died on Friday.

A 24-year-old Abbotsford woman who took the drug Jan. 2 remains in critical condition.

The majority of ecstasy found in Calgary originates from B.C.’s Lower Mainland, according to Calgary police.

Toxicology results typically take between two and three weeks in B.C., where there is only one toxicology lab used by the coroners service.

The B.C. Coroners Service has reported 10 to 24 ecstasy-related deaths per year from 2007 to 2010, according to Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.’s chief medical health officer.

Canada has been a hotbed for producing ecstasy in past years because it was easier here than in the U.S. to access the precursor chemicals, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, said Sgt. Duncan Pound of the RCMP’s drug enforcement division.

However, a recent amendment to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act now makes it a crime to possess the tools of synthetic drug production.